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Shiite Militias Join Battle for Mosul

by VOA News

   Iraqi forces advanced into a town south of Mosul Saturday as an Iraqi
   Shiite militia joined the offensive by opening up a new front to the
   west.
   Iraqi troops approaching Mosul from the south advanced into Shura after
   a wave of U.S.-led airstrikes and artillery shelling against militant
   positions inside the town.
   Commanders said most Islamic State fighters withdrew earlier this week,
   using civilians as human shields, but that U.S. airstrikes had
   disrupted the forced march, helping some civilians to escape.

   Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, are advancing on
   Mosul from the south, east and north, capturing villages and disarming
   Islamic State booby traps.

   Tal Afar, about 70km west of Mosul, Iraq

   To the west of the city, Iraq's state-sanctioned Shiite militias,
   backed by Iran, have launched an assault aimed at driving IS from the
   town of Tal Afar to try to secure the western border with Syria. That
   could cut-off critical weapons and supply routes between Mosul and the
   Syrian city of Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold. There are concerns
   the militias could inflame sectarian tensions in the Sunni-majority
   city, but commanders have said they will not enter the city itself.
   According to U.N.-cited reports IS has forcibly taken civilians into
   Mosul. The reports say that in just two days earlier this week,
   IS-fighters killed more than 250 people who resisted or who were
   previously members of Iraqi security forces.

   Newly displaced Iraqi's who fled from the city of Mosul, Iraq's last
   major so-called Islamic State (IS) group stronghold, are reunited with
   their relatives who came two years ago to the refugee camp in the
   Khazer area, near near the Kurdish checkpoint of Aksi Kalak, some 40
   kilometres east of Arbil following their arrival on October 26, 2016.

   More than 17,500 people have fled their homes toward government-held
   areas since the Mosul operation began, the International Organization
   for Migration said Saturday. That number is expected to sharply rise as
   the battle continues.
   Iraqi forces launched a massive offensive to retake militant-held Mosul
   last week, Iraq's second largest city, home to more than 1 million
   people. The battle for Mosul is expected to take weeks, if not months.